Week 15

Date
April 10, 2017

Distance
100 miles

Strava Link
Week 15

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 
It was cold out there, but I'm getting antsy and wanted to do some climbing, so I went over to Markleeville and did the easy side of Luther Pass. There's still a ton of snow up there. I've never seen it quite like that before. I was thinking back to when the Tour of California came through here last year (Here's the report.). I remember that Tom Boonen came through behind the peloton and if you watch the last video you can hear me, in my dorky way, call out his name as he passed by. Here we are about a year later and his last race was yesterday at Paris Roubaix.

I think I started following pro cycling around 2004 or so, and Boonen was always one of my favorite riders. Maybe that's kind of lame because 2005 was when he did the Flanders-Roubaix double and won the worlds, so that's kind of like starting to watch football and being a Tom Brady fan. Either way, he was a lot of fun to watch over the years and one of the guys I always looked out for at the Tour of California. It's sad to see him retire. Like many, I was hoping he would win Sunday, but it wasn't meant to be.

Just for fun, here's a link to my 2012 Tour of California report where I saw Boonen in person for the first time. Here's a link from 2014 when he had a really nice custom bike. There's also a picture of GVA, yesterday's winner. Speaking of the Tour of California, it's about a month away and I should have time this year to watch 2 or 3 stages. I know I'll be at the first stage in Sacramento for sure.

Tubeless Update

It's been a while since I did a tubeless update. That's because things have been going great on the Hutchinson Intensive tires. They finally started wearing out. I just did the math and the rear tire got 3,979 miles. I would have done an extra 21 on it to get 4,000 if I had known it was so close. I got a few punctures on that tire, but never one that sealant didn't fix. I never had to stop riding. There was one larger puncture that I was a little worried about, so I patched the tire after a ride. That patch held up just fine. I was happy with the Intensives. The one minor complaint I have is that they say they're 25s, but they look and ride more like a 23.

I may do Ride America South to North on a new set of Intensives. I know they are durable and dependable. However, you know that I like to experiment with different tires, so I couldn't resist trying a different tire just in case I end up liking it better. I was going to try something in a 28 (maybe a Specialized), but I found a great deal on some 25s- Panaracer Evo 3 Tubeless.

I only have 200 miles on the Panaracers, but so far they feel pretty good. They feel more supple and faster than the Intensives, but I get the feeling that they won't be as durable. That remains to be seen. I can say one thing for sure. They are a real pain to install! I put them on my Ultegra wheels and they were super tight. That was one of the tightest tire/rim combos I've seen, and I've been riding seriously for 14 years now. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been great around here, so putting them out in the sun for a while didn't really do much. I had to just pry the hell out of them with tire levers. It took a pretty long time and a lot of F bombs to get them on. Once they were on the rim, the actual tubeless setup wasn't that bad. I got the bead to set with my standard practice of leaving a tube in overnight and using a ton of soapy water the next day.

We'll see how it goes. My one worry with taking these on my tour is that if I get a really bad flat and need to put a tube in, will they still be super difficult to get back on the rim or will they stretch out a little bit? As of today I'm leaning towards doing the tour on some fresh Intensive tires. I'll also be looking around for a deal on some 28s that maybe I can test out a little on my other bike.